St Helens Madlove Takeover - Jonny Benjamin "The Stranger on the Bridge"

St Helens Madlove are delighted to welcome mental health campaigner and suicide survivor Jonny Benjamin MBE to St Helens for a special screening of his documentary The Stranger on the Bridge on  Thursday 28th November 5pm. Part of A Madlove Take Over, an arts festival for mental health.

Jonny will be joined by fellow mental health campaigner Angela Samata for a Q&A after the film screening.

The Stranger on the Bridge tells Jonny’s moving story. Having been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder shortly beforehand, he stood on London’s Waterloo Bridge in January 2008 and prepared to take his own life. That was until a stranger walking across the bridge saw him and talked Jonny down from the edge. Jonny was taken to hospital and didn’t see the stranger again but was determined to find him and thank him for what he did.

Jonny launched the #FindMike campaign with the support of Rethink Mental Illness, which became a social media sensation, eventually reaching over 300 million people worldwide. Emotional, heartwarming and thought-provoking, this is a film about a simple human interaction and how one man’s kind gesture six years ago has had a huge butterfly effect beyond what anyone could ever have imagined.

The screening forms part of A ‘Madlove’ Take Over festival, produced by Merseyside-based social arts organisation Heart of Glass, artist the vacuum cleaner (James Leadbitter) and featuring the work of 13 local, national and international artists. The Madlove Take Over Space is based in the old Argos store, Unit 2, The Hardshaw Centre, Church Street, St Helens, WA10 1EB.  Find out more about A Madlove Take Over here.

The Madlove Take Over space is safe, welcoming and accessible. Please find more access information here and a map of the venue here.